This page features news in the area of children’s literature, events from around the blogging community, and announcements about KidLitosphere happenings. Primarily focused on literary news, special events, useful articles, and interesting posts from other blogs, it does not include reviews, interviews, or opinions.

This week I was honored to receive not one but two blog awards from Dawn Little of Literacy Toolbox. Like my co-honoree Terry Doherty, I’m not one to pass along awards like this - I don’t like picking sub-sets of my favorite blogs, according to anyone else’s criteria. But I am delighted to be in such wonderful company with the other names on Dawn’s list.

I was also happy to have my blog listed as a resource recently on the Education and Social Sciences Library (ESSL) Children’s Literature Blog. Katelyn Edds chose a selection of blogs based on “how often the blogs were updated, their layout and content, and how often the blogs were cited by others as being authoritative.” I’m in excellent company there, too, with blogs like Fuse #8, Readergirlz, and Guys Lit Wire, to name a few.

Speaking of Terry Doherty, her writer’s prompt at Booklights this month is a fun one - Mad Libs. Oh, how I loved Mad Libs when I was in middle school. She talks about some different versions of the Mad Libs idea, shares some memories, and discusses why Mad Libs and related word games are an excellent literacy tool. Fun stuff! Ann also talks about writing prompts for kids in her monthly Booklights post. Great minds thinking alike, I guess.

Accredited Online Colleges has a fun post this week: 10 Children’s Books Every Business Student Should read. It’s a nice mix of older and newer titles, and includes Chris Barton’s The Day-Glo Brothers. Thanks to Emma Taylor for the link.

Liz Bresponds at Tea Cozy to a recent New York Times article by Julie Just about problem parents in young adult literature. I agree 100% with Liz’s conclusion: “Just as parents need to get out of the way for their teenagers to mature into adults, so should we adults who read and review young adult books get out of the way of the intended audience — the teens. Yes, we can read and enjoy those books; but let’s not ask for those books to be written to reflect our reality of adults and parents.” But do read the whole post. Monica Edinger chimes in on the Times piece, too, though more briefly.

At the Book Whisperer, Donalyn Millercontinues her series on resources to help teachers discover books for kids. This time, she discusses Twitter (where you can find her at @DonalynBooks). She gives tons of great examples of the fun that is following the kidlit twitterverse.

The NCBLA blog reports on the start of the Exquisite Corpse Adventure Mystery Author Contest. The idea is for school classes to “Play Twenty Questions with other Exquisite Corpse Adventure readers around the country to help identify The Mystery Author! Every class that solves the mystery and emails in the correct guess will be entered into a drawing to win a collection of books valued at over $500 for their classroom or library, plus a phone conversation with The Mystery Author!”

Quick Hits:

I haven’t mentioned it in a while, and thought that I would draw your attention to the latest installment of Sherry Early’sSaturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Every week, Sherry asks contributors to link to their reviews from the week - resulting in links to dozens of book reviews.

Mitali Perkins shares an inspiring plea from 8th grader Anisha N. on behalf of her school library.

Lenore’s International Book Blogger Mentor program is up and running. She shares some of the featured bloggers at Presenting Lenore.

At the Tidy Books blog, Ian Newbold is wondering whether or not children’s books should come with warnings (e.g. if a character dies).

I’ll be away from the computer tomorrow, celebrating Easter as well as baseball’s Opening Day (finally!). Wishing you all a Happy Easter or Passover, or anything else that you might celebrate, and a happy spring.